Abstract
Copper Nitride (Cu_3N) thin films exhibit promising optoelectronic properties and are favourable for further applications in the field of photodetection, lithium-ion batteries etc. In this work, Cu_3N thin film deposited by reactive High-Power Impulse Magnetron Sputtering (HiPIMS) and used for photodetection application for the first time. The microstructure of Cu_3N nanocrystal shows the uniform crystalline morphology and less defects due to high target species ionization rate. The phase structure analysis results confirmed the presence of nitrogen within Cu_3N thin film that is composed of Cu_3N crystallites with anti-ReO_3 structure. Remarkably, optical properties reveal significant absorbance and enhancement in ultraviolet (UV) and visible (Viz) range, which strongly affect the photodetection properties of fabricated ITO/Cu_3N/ITO device. Excellent photosensitivity of 3792% was attained with a fixed light intensity. Furthermore, the photosensitivity was increased to 7443% with increased light intensity. It was perceived that the enhanced surface properties and perfect formation of ITO/Cu_3N/ITO resulted in beneficial pn junction thus exhibits high performance and ultrafast electron-hole recombination. Also, the HiPIMS technique offers high-quality films with a dense and smooth surface that helped in enhancing photodetection. These outstanding results emanate Cu_3N films could be potential candidate for future optoelectronic devices fabrication that can be applied in smart thin-film gadgets.
NSTL
Elsevier